One day after the Italian deputy prime minister and leader of the League party, called for the elimination of Italy's central bank and the country's financial regulator, Consob, saying the two institutions should be "reduced to zero, more than changing one or two people, reduced to zero", or in other words eliminated, and that “fraudsters” who inflicted losses on Italian savers should "end up in prison for a long time", Salvini prompted fresh shocked gasps in Brussels and Frankfurt when he raised the possibility of seizing Italy’s massive gold reserves away from the country’s central bank.

"The gold is the property of the Italian people, not of anyone else," Salvini said in comments to reporters on Monday, according to the FT.

The controversial comments, which were seen as threatening the "independence" of the Italian central bank, whose one-time head was none other than Mario Draghi, prompted Giovanni Tria, Italy's economy minister, to defend the independence of the central bank.

Earlier in the day, Italy's populists called on lawmakers to pass legislation stating that its gold holdings belong to the state, Bloomberg reported.

The gold ownership bill presented by euroskeptic lawmaker Claudio Borghi of the League adds to an already tense relationship between the Bank of Italy and the coalition government. It’s also sparked criticism from opposition politicians, and some national media argue that it may allow the government to raid the gold reserves to fund spending promises.

Borghi has rejected the accusation and said he’ll ensure Parliament has ultimate power. His concern is that ambiguity of ownership means that a victorious legal action against the central bank – for inadequate supervision, for example – leaves open the possibility of a claimant getting compensation in gold.

“My bill only aims at making clear that the gold belongs to the state, not to the government,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. “If there are doubts on our intentions, we can also pass another law saying none of the gold reserves can be sold unless there is a majority of two thirds or more of both houses of Parliament.”

It is VERY ironic that commies often complain about "muh evil capitalism" yet never address the real source of the problem: the monopoly men who create fraudulent debt obligations and insolvency. The central banks are the ones that can consolidate all the wealth with their control over the issuance of fiat currencies. And guess what? Everything they do is kept a secret. Well no shit!

The good thing about the Italian government this time around is they have TWO populist parties holding power now, and all the commies/'socialists' were BTFO last election, holding very little influence. This means this is a REAL threat to the political establishment. Lets just hope they do stick it to them because this would rock the EU in more ways than one.

I just think commies don't realize that they are controlled by these same monopoly men. I'll never forget how the Occupy movement talked about the evil banks but were always defensive of the central bank (because they like central solutions).

I think the main reason is that their policies might actually require some central banking policies and practices, such as creating mass amounts of debt, and they need a strong government to pass that onto taxpayers (the workers). You can't enforce a lot of their socialistic/communistic policies without some entity creating mass amounts of debt insolvency.

Also, this is technically why a lot of capitalists (as myself) do NOT like the central banking system, because we know it interferes with basic economics and can undermine the free market and creates such fiscal insolvency in the first place. The Fed is not really capitalism's friend like people are deluded to believe today.